Ash Wedesday by A.C. Billedeaux

This is a Surprise Book Review! Why? Because I surprisingly got an ARC and surprisingly read it in 2 days and surprisingly decided to post it here (the last one is surprising for you, not me, because I knew I’d post it here). SO! Enjoy!(Have you voted on our poll in the sidebar yet? Just so you know, Heist Society is winning by, like a lot. We’re thinking of doing a discussion with lots of Ocean’s Eleven GIFs. Going to be a winner right?)ASH WEDNESDAY releases on November 7th!

The boys in Pilot’s Coliseum have been killing each other for the better part of two years. Nuclear apocalypse destroyed everything, so now it’s the only way to get by. Pilot has the resources. He has the food, the water, the protection. He has the city, eating out of the palm of his hand. He has the way.And his boys–Pilot’s boys, Pilot’s handcrafted monsters–have the will.But no one has more of it than Red. He’s the greatest fighter in Pilot’s Coliseum, the golden boy, the best of the worst. It doesn’t matter what you put in front of him, he can kill with it. Doesn’t matter who. Doesn’t matter why. Red is Pilot’s perfect soldier. His perfect war machine.But it might not be enough.Because now Pilot is asking Red for more. He’s asking for everything–everything Red cares about, everything Red feels, everything human left in him. He’s asking him to give up everything but the knife, the bloody trophy of his last kill, so that Pilot can make him something more.Pilot wants to make him a hero.

I have a (secret) obsession about dystopian, so of course I was keen on ASH WEDNESDAY! I loved the world the author presented, but even more, I looooved the characters. Gosh! They were gritty (and kind of scary, but in a good way). But I will get to that.

Plot and world-building? Nice. Very concise, though I wondered if sometimes it was too concise? I actually still don’t really understand why Pilot made the coliseum and how it helped the economy. (That’s probably just me though.) I would have liked more explanations. The plot dragged in the middle, but the beginning and end are awesome.

Writing? EPIC. I looooved the voice! It was in 3rd person, but the voice was so vivid. The first part is mostly narrated by Red (who is epic). He has a really raw voice, and despite being in 3rd person, I felt right in his head. I saw what he saw. Now that is good writing. Unfortunately, then we left Red’s head and moved into Lila’s. Don’t get me wrong! I loved Lila. But not as much as Red. <spoiler> I use the word “unfortunately” here, because Red freaking dies. Not okay. Not okay at all. Excuse me. Hand me a tissue, will ya? </spoiler> My only negativity is how the writing got kind of omnipresent at times. We bopped from head to head without warning. I’m not a fan of that style. I preferred sticking to one character’s POV.

A quick little gush about Red and Lila. They – were – so – fantastic. WOW. Lila is a wisp of a thing and Red is a lean-mean-fighting-machine (but still very soft and caring). I thought they were nicely presented.

Since dystopian has been on a mega-high these last few years, it’s really hard to find a fresh take on the whole crazy-government-rules-all-and-doesn’t-let-the-people-eat-cake. Besides having tyranny and craziness, what more can you do? I understand this. But, that saying, I’m not keen on dystopians that follow too closely in the path of another (already published/established) books. I really felt like ASH WEDNESDAY was an epic book, buuut, it followed too close to THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins. The whole arena-and-fight-to-the-death thing? It’s been done. I’m a THG fan, so I stick with my alliances. My real peeve is this: ASH WEDENESDAY has incredible voice and epic characters. It can hold it’s own. So, I feel (personally) if it hadn’t followed a similar story-line to THG, it could have floated my boat a whole lot more.

And it was too short! I wanted MORE. Seriously! How could it be so short? (Is there a sequel?!! I demand one.)

Thank you to the author for providing me with a review-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Cait is bemoaning the odd lack of Ocean’s Eleven GIFs on the internet. She feels this is a great downfall of mankind. She’s currently reading Eat Brains Love by Jeff Hart (yes, zombies, don’t knock it until you try it). She plans to bake chocolate chip biscuits with her 3-year-old nephew. This will involve eating chocolate and not much baking.

Comments

I haven't heard of this but you make the main characters sound awesome! I hate that the person's voice you liked the most died! That stinks! It's too bad that the awesome world building and characters were overshadowed by how close it was to THG. It's so hard to make new dystopias these days and it seems like it would've worked without the similarities. Thanks for the surprising review 😉

What can I say? I like surprises (mostly if they're about books or chocolate, but I can be flexible.) I really did like this book! I'm surprised it hasn't circled the blogosphere more. It should! And, yes, totally agree with you. Dystopias could use a little freshening…or maybe I've just read too many? 😉